That's the problem with Asheville, same as Chapel Hill. The hippies moved to both towns around the same time (60s for Chapel Hill, 70s for Asheville) and made the towns "cool" to outsiders. So the outsiders moved there, and brought with them the same laws, regulations, and taxes they left (wherever) to escape. Chapel Hill is now filled with assholes from the northeast, Asheville is now filled with assholes from Florida. All the hippies left Chapel Hill ages ago (mostly to Carrboro, which now suffers from the twin plague of hipsters and smugsters) and Asheville is rapidly becoming the most expensive town in the state to live in, even surpassing Nags Head.

My advice to this guy is to move even further back into the woods - perhaps Montana.

"This is supposed to be the land of the free. Government is supposed to help people, protect their individual liberties and freedom -- that's not what's happening here,"

He sounds like one of those racist, tea party, anti-government types looking for his Somalian utopia that the progressives are always warning us about. If you look at the photo in the article you will see that he is a white male so the big government progressives are probably right.

That's the problem with Asheville, same as Chapel Hill. The hippies moved to both towns around the same time (60s for Chapel Hill, 70s for Asheville) and made the towns "cool" to outsiders. So the outsiders moved there, and brought with them the same laws, regulations, and taxes they left (wherever) to escape. Chapel Hill is now filled with assholes from the northeast, Asheville is now filled with assholes from Florida. All the hippies left Chapel Hill ages ago (mostly to Carrboro, which now suffers from the twin plague of hipsters and smugsters) and Asheville is rapidly becoming the most expensive town in the state to live in, even surpassing Nags Head.

My advice to this guy is to move even further back into the woods - perhaps Montana.

" Government is supposed to help people,protect their individual liberties and freedom -- that's not what's happening here,"

Yeah they are trying to protect people who attend your 'school' from having your shoddy buildings fall on them. If you only wanted to endanger yourself, have at it, but you are running a business and with that needs to come some basic standards/permitting requirements

earthworm2.0:drjekel_mrhyde: More like the government don't want to get sued if some asshat dies in hut collapse

Right, so, private property is the responsibility of the government.

It's gotten so bad that the government forces restaurants to follow sanitation rules. They make bus companies have only licensed drivers. Nightclubs have occupancy limits. Where does the nanny state end?

That's the problem with Asheville, same as Chapel Hill. The hippies moved to both towns around the same time (60s for Chapel Hill, 70s for Asheville) and made the towns "cool" to outsiders. So the outsiders moved there, and brought with them the same laws, regulations, and taxes they left (wherever) to escape. Chapel Hill is now filled with assholes from the northeast, Asheville is now filled with assholes from Florida. All the hippies left Chapel Hill ages ago (mostly to Carrboro, which now suffers from the twin plague of hipsters and smugsters) and Asheville is rapidly becoming the most expensive town in the state to live in, even surpassing Nags Head.

My advice to this guy is to move even further back into the woods - perhaps Montana.

freedom is a state of mind. and a back porch built on your house in 1964 will not be up to code in 2013. along the way people were hurt, got crippled and died due to porch related accidents and mishaps. because we are not idiots we apply what we learn and make the back porch a safer porch. building codes are updated.

my 1961 (?) Plymouth Belvedere came from the factory with no seat belts, no exterior mirrors, no head rests, few pollution restriction devices and the dashboard was metal. compare this with what you find on todays car lot.

Should they force him to comply with modern building codes and shut his school down if he can't comply? I don't think so.

Should they force him to take out a liability insurance policy, and have his students sign a waiver acknowledging that the buildings don't meet NC building codes, and by entering said buildings they are taking their safety into their own hands? Certainly, but that won't earn the local gov't any money, and since he was on TV, he's gotta have money now right?

Archae hippy:OldManDownDRoad: Must be that guy from Asheville (checks story). Yep.

That's the problem with Asheville, same as Chapel Hill. The hippies moved to both towns around the same time (60s for Chapel Hill, 70s for Asheville) and made the towns "cool" to outsiders. So the outsiders moved there, and brought with them the same laws, regulations, and taxes they left (wherever) to escape. Chapel Hill is now filled with assholes from the northeast, Asheville is now filled with assholes from Florida. All the hippies left Chapel Hill ages ago (mostly to Carrboro, which now suffers from the twin plague of hipsters and smugsters) and Asheville is rapidly becoming the most expensive town in the state to live in, even surpassing Nags Head.

My advice to this guy is to move even further back into the woods - perhaps Montana.

The NC woods are pretty deep. Try Cullowhee.

Can't be that deep, they have a UNC-system school (allegedly), which means they should have a couple big expensive buildings for sports and such, plus maybe a classroom or two.

Nope. Boone / Watauga county. He was also recently arrested for harassing his neighbors, which kind of hurt his support locally. It's also interesting that the local state senator, Republican Dan Soucek supports him based on small government, do what you want with your own property type principles.

Skarekrough:earthworm2.0: drjekel_mrhyde: More like the government don't want to get sued if some asshat dies in hut collapse

Right, so, private property is the responsibility of the government.

Ever had a housefire?

Ever try to sue the fire department for not responding fast enough? Guess what? They aren't legally responsible, just like the police aren't legally responsible if you get killed, raped, or injured, even if you warned them specifically that there was a high probability it would happen.

hasty ambush:"This is supposed to be the land of the free. Government is supposed to help people, protect their individual liberties and freedom -- that's not what's happening here,"

He sounds like one of those racist, tea party, anti-government types looking for his Somalian utopia that the progressives are always warning us about. If you look at the photo in the article you will see that he is a white male so the big government progressives are probably right.

Or he's just a guy trying to live his life in the woods and just wants the government to leave him alone and let him live the way he wants to. It doesn't seem to matter which side of the political spectrum you're on, people seem to think that government regulation over one's lifestyle is just fine and dandy as long as it's not MY lifestyle. (See also: gay marriage)

I get the need for regulations and building codes, especially in densely populated areas. The problem is that many times these laws are "one size fits all" and fail to realize that urban and rural areas are different. I live way out in the middle of flyover land, and we don't have building inspections. If you want to build something, just build it. No permits, no inspections, nothing. Somehow we manage to get by without having 100% of our population die in catastrophic building failures. Would that model work in downtown NYC? Absolutely not. Nobody wants a skyscraper falling on their heads. This isn't NYC though. This is the middle of nowhere. These people are trying to force city regulation onto a country boy, and that just never fits.

dittybopper:Skarekrough: earthworm2.0: drjekel_mrhyde: More like the government don't want to get sued if some asshat dies in hut collapse

Right, so, private property is the responsibility of the government.

Ever had a housefire?

Ever try to sue the fire department for not responding fast enough? Guess what? They aren't legally responsible, just like the police aren't legally responsible if you get killed, raped, or injured, even if you warned them specifically that there was a high probability it would happen.

The fire department is there to keep the fire from spreading, not to save your stuff.The police are there to arrest criminals after they have commited a crime, not to save your ass.

dittybopper:Ever try to sue the fire department for not responding fast enough? Guess what? They aren't legally responsible, just like the police aren't legally responsible if you get killed, raped, or injured, even if you warned them specifically that there was a high probability it would happen.